Cardinal sin

Bears test their faithful fans with pathetic performance vs. Arizona

There were many of them at Soldier Field and everywhere the Bears are loved Sunday thanks to a 41-21 loss to the Cardinals.

The Bears' second pathetic performance in three weeks left fans knowing exactly who they are -- and it's not who we thought they were.

The Bears are a team capable of being mopped around the field by a slightly above-average team. They are a team that is not close to consistent. They are a team that has not hit its stride and may never. They are a team that is sitting on the side of the road watching their chances fly by like cars on an expressway.

Middle linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer was the last player left in a locker room that cleared out quickly and quietly.

"I don't know what went wrong," he said. "I'd feel better if I knew, because then we could fix it."

On what would have been a delightful day for baseball, the Bears lost everything from their swagger to their composure.

Jay Cutler was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for mouthing off to an official. Tommie Harris was ejected from the game on the Cardinals' fourth snap for punching Arizona guard Deuce Lutui.

Too bad he couldn't have taken the rest of the defense with him to the locker room. The Bears' defense was alarmingly incapable in the first half, when Arizona built a 31-7 lead.

Coach Lovie Smith tried to rally the defensive troops with a sideline talk after the Cardinals went up 14-7 in the first quarter. He looked each member of the unit in the eyes. Said free safety Nate Vasher, "He told us, 'Play with pride, play hard like we know we can. Everybody has to be accountable and do their job, and we can be successful.' "

The defense responded by allowing two straight touchdown drives and four straight scoring drives.

"They wanted it more," safety Danieal Manning said. "They executed and we didn't. We played hard, but we didn't play smart enough."

The offense was nowhere near as incompetent. Cutler took the team on his back and battled gamely. He wound up with 369 passing yards and only threw one late interception despite the fact he was playing catch-up from the start.

Cutler did make the boos subside for a brief time in the fourth quarter when he threw a pair of TD passes to Greg Olsen within less than three minutes. But the Bears still were down by 13 points, and Cutler's interception to Matt Ware with 6:41 remaining killed any hope the home team still had.

"For about five minutes during that game, we actually believed we could win," said defensive end Alex Brown. "We played like it. Why can't we do that from the first play? That's what we have to figure out."